STORY: When Ukrainian canoeist Anastasiia Rybachok sculls through the Paris Olympics nautical stadium, she’ll be thinking of her fellow countrymen and women under fire. :: Anastasiia Rybachok, Ukrainian canoeist:: “It breaks my heart that we are losing so many people. I am very sorry they have to sacrifice so much at the frontlines. So I want to pay them back with whatever I can on the ‘front line‘ of sport. I want to do my best to prove to them that what they do is not in vain. One of those defending the country is my uncle and his service is not in vain, either.”::Kyiv region, Ukraine The Tokyo Olympics silver medallist is among 140 Ukrainian athletes participating in the Paris Games. :: July 8, 2024That’s as Moscow's full-scale invasion grinds into its 30th month.It shows no signs of slowing either, with Russian forces pressing forwards in several directions. Rybachok and the country’s other athletes have trained amid air strikes and a constant stream of news from the frontline. Kyiv's sports ministry said that nearly 500 athletes have been killed since February 2022.:: Svitlana ChetverikovaEarly in the war, Rybachok's hometown of Kherson in southern Ukraine was quickly occupied by Russian forces as she watched in horror from abroad.:: “I did not really care about the house. I did not care for the things I left there. The most important thing for me was to make sure my parents were safe and close to me. My mum managed to rescue what has been my biggest achievement – my Olympic medal. She wore it on her neck because the Russian forces were confiscating all gold, silver and other precious metals. When she was leaving, she kept the medal on her chest.”Since then, she's juggled training and becoming a new mother, saying her chief motivation to compete is her family. Rybachok said she will feel added pressure in this year's Games, but also that finishing first will not be the only priority.:: “For me, to raise the Ukrainian flag at the Olympic Games is a great honor, no matter whether it will be bronze, silver or a gold. Even if it is only to show our defenders that we, the people on the sports 'front line', are not weak either, that our spirit is as strong as theirs.”